Amazon Fire TV Stick fires straight at Google Chromecast

Amazon's streaming stick set to launch November 19

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Time to free up an HDMI port, as Amazon announced its Fire TV Stick. Similar in size to Google's Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick, Amazon aims to destroy its competition with better hardware and a stunningly cheap, two-day special offer for Amazon Prime customers.

While similar to Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick, the Amazon Fire TV Stick tries to set itself apart in a few ways. It's compatibility with the Amazon Fire TV game controller is nice, opening up a selection of over 200 games to download. (Of course, that requires the $40 standalone cost of the controller.)

Naturally, Amazon Instant Video is available from the get-go, an app sorely missing from the Chromecast. On the downside, the Fire TV Stick is missing HBO Go out of the box, but we might see it on the platform by year's end.

Under the hood of this HDMI stick is a dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of flash storage. These internals Amazon made sure to highlight, as they currently oust the Chromecast and Roku Streaming Stick's spec sheets by quite a long shot.

Releasing just a week before Black Friday, the Amazon Fire TV Stick is available for pre-order right now for $39 (about £31, AU$44). Amazon hasn't announced global availability, but we've reached out and will update with new information as it comes. As a special perk for current Amazon Prime subscribers, you can pre-order the Fire TV Stick for a cool $20 for the next two days.